Thanks to Pixar’s Onward, Tom Holland has been plopped in front of several microphones, which is almost always a guarantee that he’ll drop some clues about what’s next for Spider-Man, including the eagerly-awaited sequel to Spider-Man: Far From Home. For now, that film is simply being referred to as “Spider-Man 3” even though we’re all doing our best to forget disco-dancing Tobey Maguire.
But according to Production Weekly, the third Spidey installment now has a working title that continues the Seinfeld theme from the first two movies. To avoid confusion, a working title serves not only as a placeholder while studios prep the actual title of the film, but also as a cover for the movie’s production to stave off curious onlookers. (For example, Return of the Jedi used the working title “Blue Harvest” to keep rabid Star Wars fans and the media at bay while filming in the U.S.) Spider-Man: Homecoming went by “Summer of George,” Far From Home was “Fall of George,” and Spider-Man 3 just picked up the name “Serenity Now.”
Seinfeld fans will instantly recognize “Serenity Now” from the final season of the hit sitcom. In the episode, Frank Contanza uses the mantra to calm his anger, which is rapidly growing while trying to sell computers out of his garage with the help of George, who pretends to be unloading them on customers, but is actually hiding them in Kramer’s apartment. In the end, Frank eventually explodes from bottling his anger because it turns out the real mantra is “serenity now, insanity later.”
Could this be a clue about the plot of Spider-Man 3? Possibly. Far From Home ended with Peter Parker’s identity revealed to the world, so he definitely could use some calming methods during this new chapter in his life. The phrase could also be a reference to the very messy and public dispute between Marvel and Sony that almost saw Spidey kicked out of the MCU. In a recent interview with MTV, Holland revealed that Sony was fully prepared to brave a world ahead without Marvel:
“[The] future for Spider-Man was still very bright with Sony and we had a really, really wonderful idea how we could sort of transition into a Spider-Man without the MCU and Tom Rothman and Amy Pascal were really confidant that they were gonna do justice and make a film of the calibre that Spider-Man requires… But that said, I’m really glad to be back in the MCU and to have the team back together because I kind of feel like it’s where he belongs now.”
Fortunately, a drunken phone call between Holland and former Disney CEO Bob Iger fixed everything, and Spider-Man 3 is back on track right down to the Seinfeld jokes.
(Via Screen Rant, Comic Book Movie)
